05-16-11 - From MOM

Well yesterday they took Cameron off the breathing machine.  Cameron is very uncomfortable and his throat  is very soar after having the tube down it for over two weeks. He needs to cough and has lots of flem to cough up but doesn't seem to want to do this because his throat is so soar.  They say that it takes lots of muscles to cough and he hasn't used them in over two weeks, so this will take a few days to get used to.
The respiratory therapist comes in about every four hours to turn on the vibrating hospital bed then suction his throat, and yes a rubber tube gets shoved up his nose....yuck!

Cameron had a busy day today.....He had an Echo on his heart and his left ventricle is now up to 57% which is awesome!!! 

Cameron has started with speech therapy today, which didn't seem to be anything to major for now.
They are wanting Cameron to be able to swallow normally before they start him on clear liquids.
The therapist showed me some games to play so that he can relearn this. They seemed very happy with everything that Cameron can already do...

Cameron started physcal therapy last week and this continues. I believe they will start having him sit up in his bed in the next coouple of days. 

He also has pancreitus.  They discovered this a couple of days ago and stopped feeding him through the NG tube ( tube threw his nose) and started back IV feeding him TPN (total parent nutrition).  They say this is not abnormal and should correct itself after a couple of days.  When they were following up on the pancreitus with a sonogram yesterday, they found a blood clot.  The clot is near were the central line was. (one of the many I V  lines Cameron had in him.) They say this isn't unusual and he is on a blood thinner and they will be monitoring this.

The Neuro sergeons are sending Cameron down for another MRI tomorrow.  If everything goes well with this then they will cut back there visits down to once a week.  I will miss them and how excited they get when they see Cameron and all his progress, but I know that its because of all his progress that they can reduce the visits.

Our Disease Infectious Doctor came in today to tell us that they still are not sure of what caused this.
We have lists of every test that has been done and every test so far has either been negative....or that he has antibodies for meaning he had in the past and didn't cause this... 
We still have about four things (all the Encephalitis diagnosis like west nile, eastern Equine) that we are still waiting on the states results on.  They say that we have about a 50% chance of even finding out what this was for sure.  We know that it was nothing bacterial and that it was something viral.

 I am so thankful for the nurses and doctors here at All Childrens Hospital. I know that Cameron is in the best care here.

Thank you for again for keeping our family in your thoughts and prayers.
jen